1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the mounting and securing onto a wheeled vehicle of its tire wheel, where the mounting and securing means include a multiplicity of studs and lug nuts. In particular, the present invention addresses itself to:
a. Easing the manual difficulty and effort required to align and mount the tire wheel onto the vehicle.
b. Overcoming difficulties and limitations in previous solutions to the subject problem including: some previous art does not significantly ease the tire wheel problem; other previous art has difficulties and limitations which are consequent to the fact that there is a multiplicity of wheel mounting stud and lug nut thread sizes and types; none of the previous art which depends upon secure screwing onto the vehicle mount stud includes a positive means of assuring the user that said screwing is safely consummated: given the dirt, metal and rust material practically encountered in the threads, this represents a safety hazard for general public usage.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Inherent in the process of mounting a tire wheel onto a wheeled vehicle is the manual difficulty and effort which is required as a consequence of the required weight suspension and three-dimensional translational and angular alignment of the tire wheel with respect to its mount geometry. This process requires manual strength, effort, spatial/geometric perception and projection, and dexterity on the part of the person mounting the tire wheel. Further, this mounting process is made significantly more difficult if the ambient light conditions are poor. Additionally, means for alleviating this mounting process must take into account the fact that there is a multiplicity of wheel mounting stud and lug nut thread sizes and types, where this basic problem is worsened by the fact that due to both the required know-how and effort, relatively few vehicle owners and drivers know the thread size and type of the wheel mounting studs and lug nuts on their vehicles. Also, a solution must be small, easily stored.
Alleviation of this difficulty and required effort has long been sought, and means for addressing this objective have long existed in the prior art.
One class of the prior art means is exemplified by the Hendry U.S. Pat. No. 1,964,119 which fights the weight and bulkiness of the tire wheel with a tire wheel handling apparatus with tire wheel lift, suspend and rotate capability. However, this apparatus carries the disadvantages of an awkward mounting process per se, plus the need to have physical recourse and access to an apparatus which is quite large, bulky and heavy, and whose expense further renders it impractical for widespread use.
Another class of the prior art means is exemplified by the Kayfetz U.S. Pat. No. 2,499,758 which discloses a normally horizontal shaft, one end of which is screwed onto one of the tire wheel mounting studs and the other has an inclinable extension which can be used as an inclinable lift-guide lever to guide the tire wheel into its mounting alignment after said inclinable extension is passed through one of the stud clearance holes on the tire wheel proper. This wheel mounter suffers from an insufficient relief of the difficulty in tire wheel mounting, this in part because the operator-user has one hand on the inclinable lift-guide lever and the other supports and guides the tire wheel. The apparatus disclosed also has the limitations of being a complex multi-part apparatus, and, is usable with only a single mounting stud thread size and type.
Another prior art means is exemplified by the Jamieson U.S. Pat. No. 2,708,712 which is an illuminated wheel mounting guide. One version of said disclosed guide consists of a cylindrical body, one internally-threaded end of which is screwed onto a tire wheel mounting stud, and the other end has illuminating means which together with additional wall openings along said cylinder afford assistance to the mounting process via illumination both of the tire wheel - mounting surface area, and of a target zone over which the mount stud clearance holes on the wheel are passed. This embodiment suffers from a complex multi-part construction, limited reliability of the illuminating means over time and in the physical environment normally experienced, and the fact that the guide disclosed is usable only with a single mount stud thread size and type. A second version of said disclosed guide basically consists of a lever which can be used to jockey the tire wheel onto its mounting alignment, where said lever has illuminating means at both of its ends. Said illuminating means illuminate both the tire wheel clearance holes and the vehicle tire wheel mounting stud and surface area. Said second version suffers from an insufficient relief of the tire wheel mounting effort and difficulty, has limited reliability, is a complex multi-part apparatus, and does not have a secure means of resting/connecting/attaching said jockey/align/illuminating lever onto its mating tire wheel mount stud.
Another prior art means is exemplified by the Interdonato U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,979, a guide tool for mounting vehicle tire wheels. This essentially consists of a cylindrical element with internal threads at each end. Said internal threads can be screwed onto tire wheel mounting studs on the vehicle, said cylindrical element thus serving as a tire wheel mounting guide. Two mounting stud thread sizes and types can be accomodated by this guide tool, since each of its two internal threads can be different. However, said disclosed tool suffers from the limitation that the difference in the physically permissible thread sizes at each of the tool ends fails the test of practical adequacy, in that the size differential permissible is too small. This follows from the fact that the threads at both ends of the tool share a common maximum guide tool outer diameter: the effect of the practical geometries of said thread sizes and the corresponding tire wheel clearance holes, and the constraint of a shared maximum tool diameter, is to prohibitively limit the range of different thread sizes which can be used on a given guide tool.
None of the previous art which requires secure screwing onto a mating vehicle mount stud has a positive safe means of assuring that said screwing has been safely consummated. Given the dirt, metal and rust material practically encountered, this represents a safety hazard for general public usage of said prior art.